"
"Then it is a mystery past bearing. If nobody came in, and you never
left either the shop or the parlor, that money was taken out of the till
as though by magic."
"We will find it, mother; we are sure to find it," said Susy; and the
way she said these words aggravated poor Mrs. Hopkins, as she said
afterwards, more than a little.
CHAPTER XII.
TOM HOPKINS AND HIS WAY WITH AUNT CHURCH.
It was quite true that Mrs. Hopkins could ill afford to lose so large a
sum as nineteen-and-sixpence out of her small earnings. During her
husband's lifetime the stationer's shop had gone well and provided a
comfortable living for his wife, son, and daughter. But unfortunately,
in an evil moment he had been induced to put his hand to a bill for a
friend. The friend had, as usually is the case, become bankrupt. Poor
Hopkins had to pay the money, and from that moment the affairs in the
stationer's shop were the reverse of flourishing. In fact, the blow
killed the poor man. He lingered for a time, broken-hearted and unable
to rouse himself, and finally died about three years before the
date of this story. For a time Mrs. Hopkins was quite prostrate, but
being a woman with a good deal of vigor and determination, she induced
one of her relatives to lend her one hundred pounds, and determined to
keep on with the shop. She could not, of course, stock it as fully as
she would have liked; she could never extend her connection beyond mere
stationery, sealing-wax, pens, and a very few books, and Christmas cards
in the winter.
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